Tray attachable to a steering wheel

ABSTRACT

A steering wheel tray is used on a steering wheel to support a horizontal tray that can be used to take notes coming over the cell phone. Of course, the driver could not be driving at this time. The tray consists of a plate that is attached to the surface of the steering wheel by upper spring loaded hooks that engage the rim of the steering wheel. At the bottom of the plate there is attached a tray that can be moved into a forward position toward the driver by way of a ratchet hinge.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

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STATEMENT REGARDING FED SPONSORED R & D

(none)

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention is directed to a useful device in a vehicle. In a vehicle,when parked, there is normally no provision made to perform certaintasks when sitting in a driver's seat, such as, taking notes whiletalking on a cell phone, operating a flat top computer or even whileeating. Any of these tasks are extremely cumbersome or impossible toperform because of a lack of support.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To alleviate the above noted problems, the inventive concept involves atray that may be attached to the steering wheel of a vehicle. The trayhas a background plate which will be located flat against the steeringwheel, it has hooks that hook over the circle of the steering wheel andat the bottom the plate will have a hinge to which is attached aplatform tray which then is useful for performing certain tasks on thetray similar to a surface of a table only somewhat smaller.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the steering wheel tray in an openedposition;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the steering wheel tray in a closed position;

FIGS. 3A-3E illustrate a sequence of opening of the steering wheel tray;

FIG. 4 shows a perspective side view of the steering wheel tray in moredetail;

FIG. 5 is a side view of the steering wheel tray including the elements;

FIG. 6 is a rear view of the plate which is attached to the plane of thesteering wheel including an arresting mechanism;

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an open view of the tray mounted on thesteering wheel including a holding clip;

FIG. 8A shows a ratchet mechanism for holding the tray in apredetermined horizontal position;

FIG. 8B illustrates the ratchet elements used in FIG. 8A;

FIG. 9 shows a different ratchet mechanism to adjust the horizontalposition of the tray on the steering wheel in a disengaged position;

FIG. 10 illustrates the ratchet mechanism of FIG. 9 in an engagedposition.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the steering wheel tray including a backplate 1 which will overly the plane of the steering wheel. The plate 1is held in place by spring loaded hook supports 3 and 4, which will befurther described below. The back plate 1 supports a tray 2 by way of aratchet hinge (described below) to extend toward a person sitting in thedriver's side of the vehicle who can then take advantage of theinventive concept of the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the steering wheel tray wherein the samereference call outs are being used as were in FIG. 1. The back of thesteering wheel plate 1 shows a hook channel 5 which will receive thespring loaded hook supports 3 and 4, as will be explained below.

FIGS. 3A-3E illustrate the sequence of the steering wheel tray duringits opening cycle and supported during its use as shown at 7. In orderto orient the steering wheel tray in its proper location a steeringwheel S is shown relative to a dash assembly D.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the steering wheel tray in more detail. Againthe same reference characters have been used to identify the sameelements as were identified in previous Figs. The hinge between theplate 1 and the tray 2 is again shown at 6 including a ratchet mechanismshown below. The ratchet mechanism 8 contains the spring loaded hooks 3and 4. Included in this side view is a sliding locking arm extension 9which locks the upper hook elements in a proper height adjustment.(explained below) Include in this view is a clip 10 which will holdpapers and other items in a vertical position on the plate 1 on theplane of the steering wheel circumference.

FIG. 5 shows the steering wheel tray in a side view. Again the samereference characters have been used as in previous Figs. and no furtherexplanations should be necessary.

FIG. 6 is a rear view of the plate 1 that is attached to a steeringwheel surface. It can now be seen that the spring loaded hooks 3 and 4are contained in a sliding locking arm extension 9 which in turn can besliding within the ratchet mechanism 8. The sliding arm extension hasspring loaded ratchets 12 thereon, which when moved into a properlocation, will ratchet or lock into the ratchet openings 13 in theratchet mechanism box 8. The spring loaded ratchet can be disengaged bysimple finger pressure to be freed of any engagement with the ratchetopenings 13 in the ratchet box 8. In this manner, the spring loadedhooks can be moved to a different position to accommodate a differentsized steering wheel or to adjust the lower tray to different positionas is desired by the operator depending on the task to be performed.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the steering wheel tray illustrating aratchet mechanism to hold the bottom tray 2 in a certain positionrelative to the plate resting on a surface of the steering wheel. Thisis highly desirable because in many instances the pitch or inclinationof the wheel surface is different from others. The ratchet hinge 6 canbe adjusted into many different positions and can be released by aratchet release mechanism (explained below to assume a differentposition. It should be noted that the lower edge of the tray 2 has anupstanding edge 2 a to prevent any items from sliding off from the tray2.

FIG. 8A shows a ratchet mechanism to adjust the tray 2 into differenthorizontal positions depending on the pitch of the steering wheel. Tothis end, the hinge 6 has a continuing rod 6 a extending there through.The rod 6A has at one end thereof a push button 16 to push the rod 6Aagainst a bias of the spring 16. In this position, the exterior maleratchet elements 18 are removed from the interior female ratchetelements 17 to thereby allow the horizontal tray 2 to be moved into anydesired horizontal position. Upon the release of the push button 15, thebias of the spring 16 will move the exterior ratchet elements 18 towithin the interior ratchet elements 17 to thereby lock the tray 2 in anadjusted and desired position.

FIG. 8B illustrates the exterior 18 and interior 17 ratchet mechanismuseful in adjusting the horizontal positions of the tray 2.

FIG. 9 illustrates a different ratchet mechanism form that was used inFIG. 8. The hinge 6 again has a continuing rod 6A extending through thehinge. This embodiment again has a push button 26 which, when activated,exerts pressure against the spring 25 at an opposite end of the hinge 6.The hinge 6 has stationary plates 28 mounted therein. The stationaryplates 28 are opposed by movable plates 29 which have opposing ratchetteeth 29A embedded therein. The ratchet teeth are also embedded in thestationary plates 28 at 28A. FIG. 9 shows the ratchet teeth 28A and 29Adisengaged from each other because the push button 26 is pushed againstthe bias of the spring 25, whereby the stationary plates 28, which aremounted on the interior of the hinge housing 6A, and the movable plates29, which are mounted on the hinge rod 27, are separated from eachother. As soon as the bias of the spring 25 is released, the plates 28and 29 move toward and engage each other, the horizontal tray 2 willlock into its predetermined position. A mere push of the button 26 willchange the position of the tray 2 relative to the backup plate 1 on thesteering wheel.

FIG. 10 illustrates the elements depicted in FIG. 9 but the bias of thespring 25 has exerted its force to engage the the ratchet plates 28 and29 with each other to thereby lock the tray 2 in place relative to thesteering wheel plate 1

In view of all of the above it can now be seen that a convenient traysystem has been developed that can be used on a steering wheel of avehicle to accommodate various activities when not in the process ofdriving.

1. A tray to be attached to a steering wheel of a vehicle including aplate attached to a surface of said steering wheel, a tray is attachedto a lower margin of said plate, said tray is situated in a substantialhorizontal plane by way of a hinge at said lower margin, said hingehaving ratchets therein to allow said tray to be adjustable in differentpositions.
 2. The tray of claim 1 including means for adjusting saidplate to different positions on said steering wheels.
 3. The tray ofclaim 2, wherein said means for adjusting said plate includes means foradjusting said plate to different heights relative to said steeringwheel.
 4. The tray of claim 1, wherein said ratchets consist of maleratchet elements and female ratchet elements that interengage with eachother to lock said tray in predetermined positions.
 5. The tray of claim4 wherein said male and female ratchet elements are under a spring biasto stay engaged with each other.
 6. The tray of claim 5 including a pushbutton on one side of said hinge to release said spring bias to enablesaid hinge to move said tray to different horizontal positions.
 7. Thetray of claim 1, wherein said ratchets consist of opposing teeth locatedon opposing plates.
 8. The tray of claim 7, wherein some of saidopposing plates are located in a stationary manner in said hinge andothers are located in a movable manner on a rod extending through saidhinge.
 9. The tray of claim 7, wherein said rod is spring biased toengage said opposing teeth.
 10. A steering wheel tray including asubstantially horizontal tray extending toward a driver in a vehicle,said tray being supported by a plate being attached to a surface of asteering wheel, means for attaching said plate to a rim of said steeringwheel, said means for attaching comprises at least two spring loadedhook elements being hooked over said rim of said steering wheel.
 11. Thesteering wheel tray of claim 10 including means for adjusting the heightof said tray relative to said steering wheel.
 12. The steering wheeltray of claim 11, wherein said means for adjusting said height is aratchet mechanism.
 13. The steering wheel tray of claim 12, wherein saidratchet mechanism is adjustable to different heights.
 14. The steeringwheel tray of claim 10 including means for adjusting the relativeposition of said plate relative to said tray.
 15. The steering wheeltray of claim 14, wherein said means for a relative adjustment includesa ratchet mechanism.
 16. The steering wheel tray of claim 15 includingmeans for releasing said ratchet mechanism.
 17. The steering wheel trayof claim 10 including an upstanding edge at a bottom of said tray.